Before You File a Bug Report Please Confirm You Have Done The Following...

• I have tried restarting my IDE and the issue persists.
• I have updated to the latest version of the packages.
• I have searched for related issues and found none that matched my issue.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem is not listed.

Playground Link

https://typescript-eslint.io/play/#ts=5.7.2&fileType=.ts&code=MYewdgzgLgBAZiEAuGBXMBrMIDuYYC8MYqANqQNwBQoksARgIYBOKI9AVgKbCxEIgAhNVrQYTAF4oA3gF9C8RMKA&eslintrc=N4KABGBEBOCuA2BTAzpAXGUEKQAIBcBPABxQGNoBLY-AWhXkoDt8B6Jge1tiacTJTIAhtEK0ipWkOTJE0fJQ5N0UOdA7RI4MAF8QOoA&tsconfig=N4KABGBEDGD2C2AHAlgGwKYCcDyiAuysAdgM6QBcYoEEkJemy0eAcgK6qoDCAFutAGsylBm3TgwAXxCSgA&tokens=false

Repro Code

const foo: unknown = null;
const bar: object = foo!;
const baz: {} = foo!;

ESLint Config

module.exports = {
  "rules": {
    "@typescript-eslint/no-unnecessary-type-assertion": "error"
  }
}

tsconfig

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "strictNullChecks": true
  }
}

Expected Result

I expected no error, because the non-null assertion is actually necessary. Typescript will allow you to assign a non-null asserted unknown to object or {}, but won't if it isn't non-null asserted. Because an unknown value can be null | undefined, whereas object and {} disallow that.

Actual Result

There is an error on the non-null assertion. If autofixed, it turns into a Typescript error instead, because the assertion was not unnecessary.

Additional Info

No response